PB37 Signup Thread

[Krill]

Sign ups updated.

Wither Krill's John Handcock?

You in?

[taotao]

I'm severely tempted...
...but unfortunately I've promised myself not to enter a new game until after my wedding in the summer (yes I can be a bit of a wuss).

However, if you don't find another more able/willing mapmaker then I can probably give it a go. I wouldn't be the quickest mapmaker and I'd probably need some help with the setting up part, but I guess such help can be found here without too much trouble?

[darrelljs]

The last time I made a multiplayer map was PBEM 2, and overlooked that I screwed over one player with no fresh water access.  I haven't kept up at all with our modern standards for design and balance.  Afraid I don't really think I'm your best candidate here.

You got the Oil right on that map though .

Darrell

[Krill]

Heads up, updated to version 2.0.8.3 due to bug fixes (the game actually loads now)

[Commodore]

I'm severely tempted...
...but unfortunately I've promised myself not to enter a new game until after my wedding in the summer (yes I can be a bit of a wuss).

However, if you don't find another more able/willing mapmaker then I can probably give it a go. I wouldn't be the quickest mapmaker and I'd probably need some help with the setting up part, but I guess such help can be found here without too much trouble?

Wanna team, planning on me lion's sharing until you're wed?

[Gavagai]

I'm in. I am quite overloaded right now but starting from May should have a lot of free time. So, I think I'll manage two games.

[Mardoc]

I can't meet this schedule:

Starting date: ASAP (aim for within 1 week of snake pick completion)
Number of signups: 8-12
Snakepick start: 3 days after 8th signup or once we reach 12 players, whichever is soonest.

but if you can't find a volunteer who will, I'll be a backup mapmaker.  Can't start until the 24th, as I have two sets of houseguests coming between now and then.  Of course, if there's someone who will start sooner, they should take the lead.

Can't pass up on the opportunity to solicit abuse from *both* Krill and Commodore about strategics placement .

150-175 land tiles on average per player,
Minimum 11 tiles via land between starting locations (basic guideline),
Everyone has plains hill start,
* Reveal all terrain in a 9*9 square centred on starting tile

Why don't we just give all civs Satellites on T0?    9x9 is massive!  And what's the point in guaranteeing a plains hill start and minimum separation distance, while also guaranteeing that you can see all possible starting spots within a settler move?  This puts the mapmaker in a no-win position.  Either mirror the starts, and everyone basically knows the map from T0, or don't mirror them, and make a mistake, and everyone ends up moving their capital.

[Krill]

9x9 isn't actually that big. Once capital borders expand you can see a minimum of 7x7, so it does not affect the decision to scout deep or scout around the capital. It does mean that every player knows every city location that can be settled on t1 and that is the point. Double food capitals and plains hills should be calibrated to be better than anything nearby because that's pretty good terrain. It's better than leaving something like triple food and lux that people wander into the fog and luck into. Doing this should remove the luck of moving the starting settler into the fog. The minimum distance is actually around what is built into most mapscripts anyway.

[RefSteel]

Not a sign-up so my opinion doesn't really matter, but the fact that the capital border pop will always reveal less than 9x9 regardless of terrain is one of the indications of how huge 9x9 really is. With the settings listed, [EDIT: unless there's a bunch of water included] everyone would have half of their "natural" territory revealed to them on turn 0!

Also, letting people see all possible t1 settling locations doesn't prevent triple food and lux locations from being accidentally left available: It just means that if the mapmaker does overlook one while trying to quickly assemble the entire world, the game is more likely to suffer from it since there is no longer a chance that the player, concentrating on that one starting area alone, will scout the wrong way and miss it.

[Krill]

1. The amount of tiles revelaed would be 81 tiles
   
2. The minimum amount of tiles revealed by a city with popped borders is 45, 36 tiles less than the maximum
   
3. If there are any hills in borders with clear LoS, then the number of visible tiles increases by a minimum of 5.
   
4. Hills and peaks outside borders but within the 9x9 square would be visible.
   
5. We have no statistics for the usual number of tiles revealed by popped borders.
   
6. As there is no significant difference in the shape of the FoW uncovered, the strategy of scouting around hte capital looking for second city locations is still necessary to consider.
   
7. The knowledge that there are no better city locations does remove the tactic of wandering with the settler and disturbing map balance on T0 (with the exception of looking for a location from which to warrior rush because that's never going to disappear)
   
8. Mapmakers should be looking for those unbalanced nearby city locations and removing them, considering second city locations is a critical part of map appraisal. No second city location should be significantly better than the capital (which is why all start locations need to be strong). This is independant of visibility rules on T0 (ie units start stacked, areas that are made visible).